Walking in South Boston, ammunition for educaton, examples from the crazy years, more on fire, and wisdom held from a year ago.

Mail 762 Thursday, February 14, 2013

Pledge week ends this Saturday. This place is open to all but it needs to be paid for. It is paid for by people like you. We have pledge drives when KUSC the LA good music station has their pledge drive. If you have been reading this place and like it, tell your friends, and it is time to subscribe.  If you subscribe and haven’t renewed in a while, this is the time to renew. I won’t be able to bug you about this (at least not much) for a while after this week so act now. http://www.jerrypournelle.com/paying.html

 

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Walking map of Boston from google maps, and knapping

Dr. Pournelle,

I typed your starting destination, CVS, and USS Constitution into Google Maps and got your probable route, with the beta walking directions selection set. If it is accurate, you would have doubled your travel distance. While regrettable, skipping it may have been the better part of valor on your part. I could probably do this on my iPhone, but I find the controls difficult to use with uncorrected vision — and usually therefore impossible while actually walking.

I have not a similar relationship with a flint knapper to that you have described, but in my very limited study of knapping, it seems as if one might often try new hammer stones from the local environment. Perhaps the likelihood of accidentally finding pyrite, ferrous ore, or the odd chunk of meteorite is increased? Iron bearing stone is really common in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, and around the Great Lakes. Early English settlers set up smelting from ore, and I know of one Adirondak swordsmith that gets his raw materials from local stone.

Somewhat connected to some of your other recent threads, I hereby pledge my personal political support to any neo-Neanderthal that in future you care to nominate for federal office, provided he or she is smart enough to bang two rocks together. In the meantime, I suppose I’ll have to settle for the level of talent offered by the candidates of the two major parties. The current crop of Cro-Magnon somehow often fail to meet the standard.

-d

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South Boston

Jerry:

The Westin Waterfront is in the Waterfront area of South Boston. "Southie" has a checkered history. It has traditionally been an area where successive waves of immigrants settled, most notably Irish. For most of the nearly 40 years that I have been in the Boston area, the waterfront was pretty run down (with the exception of a couple of excellent restaurants including Anthony’s Pier 4 and the "No Name" seafood restaurant).

When elevated highways were all the rage in the 1950’s, the major north-south interstate (I-93) cut the community (and several others) in half. That was remedied by the "Big Dig" project of the 1980’s and 1990’s which depressed the interstate into a tunnel and created the Rose Kennedy Greenway at ground level where the highway substructure had been. Boston politics being what they are, development of the area has been slow and full of contention. At one point the area was considered as a new home for the Boston Red Sox, until the Sox decided to renovate 100-year-old Fenway Park instead. A casino was also considered at one point.

In the last few years redevelopment of the area has stated in earnest, with the new convention center and a few new hotels. I think that retail districts (including pharmacies) are bound to follow.

The ship you saw was indeed the Constitution, across the mouth of the Charles River in Charlestown.

The remnants of the Blue Laws in Massachusetts dictate no wine, beer, or liquor for sale in pharmacies or food stores, only in liquor stores and "package stores" (convenience stores).

New Hampshire has state-run liquor stores (and private liquor stores as well), but not Massachusetts.

If you have any free time, you could walk some of the Freedom Trail, or visit the new Institute of Contemporary Art (a short walk from your hotel) or Fort Independence, a Civil War fort that can be walked around (and climbed through) about 2 miles from you. There are also "Duck Boat" tours using restored WWII era DUKW’s. I think that one terminal for the Duck Tours is at the New England Aquarium, which is also very near you in South Boston.

A few links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Boston

http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/

http://www.bostonducktours.com/

I hope the rest of your stay in "The Hub of the Universe" goes well, although I hear we might get more snow this weekend.

Best regards,

Doug Ely

I have done the Freedom Walk and actually driven the course of Paul Revere’s ride, years ago in a car full of MIT and Harvard students. Very pleasant journey. I will have no real free time this weekend but thank you for the information and good wishes.

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Ammunition for Education

Regarding the mountains of small arms and ammunition recently acquired by the Departments of Education, Agriculture and heaven only knows who else, I had a thought. It is a disturbing thought.

It is generally known that those serving in the regular armed forces cannot be relied upon to bear arms against American citizens. Someone will surely remind me of Kent State, but that was the Ohio National Guard and I believe we have learned the lessons of that sad event. It is very possible that there are some in uniform who will simply obey orders – however reluctantly – even if the orders are unlawful. However, I believe that they will be restrained by those who cannot be persuaded to do so, and many of those will be officers. Anyone attempting to use the Army or Marine Corps against Americans will be in for a rude surprise.

That said, the weapons and ammunition in reference here did not go to the regulars; they went to other departments that, as mentioned, have never before felt the need to be armed at all, let alone to this astonishing extent. I am not given to alarmism or conspiracy theories, but are there dots here that could be connected?

Perhaps, as many, if not all, the sources from which these departments purchased their ammunition came into existence immediately before the orders were placed (OK, I haven’t fact-checked this), it was simply a convenient way to funnel public dollars to pay off political debts and the goods will simply remain in warehouses.

Richard White

Austin, Texas

Don’t you hate it when you hope something is just a common crook scam and not a conspiracy? Fortunately that’s the usual explanation. No data on this one.

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Vietnam stuff –

I am a Vietnam veteran. My own experience of the war is unremarkable; I was a radar technician on an aircraft carrier. As such, I did not experience much in the way of stress of any kind. However, I have known those who did and who received less than civil treatment when they returned, though perhaps not a dramatic as Mr. Hamit’s or that of his Marine colonel.

For those who seek enlightenment in this regard, the book Zero Dark Thirty, by Samuel Brantley, is the place to start. This book is the personal account of a Marine aviator in Vietnam and thus has no relationship to the recent book/movie of the same name.

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Examples of the "Crazy Years"

Jerry,

Inadvertently funny lines from the SotU, selected by IBD:

<http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/021313-644354-accidental-humor-in-state-of-union.htm>

"It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government."

"As long as countries like China keep going all in on clean energy, so must we."

"Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs."

"We can’t cut our way to prosperity."

Mayor Bloomberg strike’s again!

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/nyregion/next-bloomberg-target-plastic-foam-cups.html>

"It is the most humble of vessels for New York City foodstuffs, ubiquitous at Chinese takeout joints and halal street carts. In pre-Starbucks days, coffee came packaged in its puffy embrace.

But the plastic-foam container may soon be going the way of trans fats, 32-ounce Pepsis, and cigarettes in Central Park.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose regulatory lance has slain fatty foods, supersize sodas, and smoking in parks, is now targeting plastic foam, the much-derided polymer that environmentalists have long tried to restrict."

While living in Robert Heinlein’s "Crazy Years" I have decided that I shall:

1) laugh rather than cry; and

2) continue to eagerly wait to be taxed for not eating my peas!

See:

President Obama, Press Conference at White House, July 11, 2011, <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/11/press-conference-president> and

National Federation of Independent Business et al. v. Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh No. 11-393. Argued March 26, 27, 28, 2012- decided June 28, 2012 <http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf>

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

These things shall pass away. Free people will remain.

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fire by banging rocks together

Jerry,

You mentioned wondering when starting fires by banging flint and steel together became common, but it does not require pure flint or pure steel. Some rocks have a high enough metallic content in them that they spark quite nicely when banged together, requiring zero metallurgical knowledge or tech to utilize. My high school science teacher had two rocks, shaped into near-perfect spheres but not polished. The round shape was to minimize the contact patch between them when banged together, and firmly whacking them together caused a very satisfying shower of sparks. These were natural stones, shaped into spheres with modern stone carving techniques to make the spark generation easier and more consistent. Supposedly they were popular with survivalists, but I haven’t seen similar sets in a long time.

During training as a USAF survival instructor, I was required to demonstrate proficiency starting fires using varying levels of assistance. The “graduate level” was starting a fire using nothing but rain soaked deadwood and a standard USAF issue survival knife, without using the knife as a spark generator. The trick is to split open the deadwood to the dry inner wood and shred it a bit, then use the age-old friction techniques to heat some wood powder to the point of combustion in the middle of the dry section of the split log. I wasn’t that good but I did manage to start a fire with dry materials, without any petrochemicals or metallic spark generators. Finding the right kind of rocks to bang together probably isn’t something that happens quickly but a tribe might need to find only one source for such rocks to be set up for generations.

Nowadays, a bag of cotton balls smeared with some Vaseline, a boy scout standard swiss army knife, and boy scout fire starter flint ought to be located in every emergency kit you ever make. With a little care in preparation, that was all I ever needed to quickly start a fire even in fairly heavy rain or snow.

Sean

: more fire

Jerry,

Here is one guy’s story about learning how to make fire consistently by banging 2 rocks together.

http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/twostones/abbww/index.html

Sean

I thought I knew something about this sort of thing. Now I know more. Thanks. I used to tell survivalists to collect fire starting materials they knew how to use, but be sure to have matches and working lighters at hand. And as Mark Csescu observes in Hammer, you can start a fire in a blizzard with a railroad flare…

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Dorner Papal Conspiracy (I confess)

Jerry,

I honestly made up the stuff about the Swiss guard & GMO wheat. I am sometimes tempted to write my own conspiracy theories, and loosely connect them to existing ones. The morning the papal story broke, I was wondering what sort of things the conspirasphere would come up with and at that particular moment lacking an intartube connection, I decided to make up my own theory. I don’t think there are any existing consp. theories connecting Dorner to the Illuminati plan to take over the papacy. I believe if one were to make the case, even a tenuous (sp) case, for it that the community would rapidly fill in the gaps and flesh it out with ‘relevant’ data points.

There are theories/predictions surrounding the papacy. St. Malachy dates back to the Dark Ages, I believe, and lists all the popes somewhat cryptically from his time to now, the next pope to be the last on St. Malachy’s list. Nostradomus said something in regard to the papacy about "the black rising to the red" or something like that in one of his quatrains, some believe that means we will have a black pope. They interpret this to mean that a black man will become a cardinal (the red) and from there go on to become the Pope. And apparently there is a conspiracy theory dating from the 1800s about the Illuminati’s plan to take over the Papacy for their own nefarious ends.

My initial idea for my conspiracy was to name it "Illuminati’s Revenge," a play on Montezuma’s revenge, hence the GMO wheat in the eucharist which induces Irritable Bowel Syndrome (or gluten allergy/ celiac disease as I understand bowel issues are associated with those maladies), and if that wasn’t sensational enough, the addition of the corruption of the legendary Swiss guard was to be the ‘gotcha’ for it.

The Dorner case, perhaps was over-reaching it a bit on my part, to tie that in would require aliens or something equally outlandish. Since the authorities seemed to be having difficulty locating the guy, Sasquatch definitely lept to mind. It now appears that he is dead (there is a whole conspiracy theory on why the LAPD wanted him dead and not alive). My last ‘tounge-in-cheek" observation on the whole affair is this; apparently there was a report that Dorner was seen getting into a horse stable somewhere in the mountains; I propose that he was last seen riding off into the sunset on a unicorn from Obama’s private herd. (Recall that Elvis never died, Hitler lived on in Argentina until the 70s, and other notororious figures have a life from beyond the grave…)

I suppose I have a slightly warped sense of humor, and perhaps too much time on my hands. But there it is, my confession!

Well, I don’t necessarily believe all the stories that amuse me enough that I retell them. If I do I generally make that plain.

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A reflection made more than a year ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Read this. It turns out that Osama’s trusted courier had contacts with Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen (a militant group closely associated with ISI), and seems to have used it as part of his support network inside the country. A more significant quote, buried on the second page: "the spy agency routinely handled militant leaders it considered assets — placing them under protective custody in cities, often close to military installations. " Speaking of ISI. OK, so ISI was caching Bin Laden, probably using him when convenient, for example when Musharraf wanted to knock off Benazir Bhutto. It already looked like that, now it seems almost certain.

Remember when that asshole Safire was suggesting a conversation of unknown content between someone at the Iraqi Embassy in the Czech Republic and Mohammed Atta was a casus belli? A conversation that never even happened? Remember when the Warren Commission was shared shitless that the Soviets had ordered JFK murdered? Like, what were they supposed to do if they found that to be the case and it got out? Push the button?

This is the real deal: hiding Bin Laden for years IS a casus belli. Even the Israelis couldn’t get away with _that_.

Pakistan is more of an enemy than Iraq ever was, more than Iran. Of course neither of them ever did much to us . More even than Libya (I’m counting Lockerbie).

Pakistan is more of an enemy than anyone we’re whacking in Afghanistan.

But we’d have to admit that we were PAYING the people sheltering Bin Laden for the past six years: the Fools at the Top would have to admit that were wrong. That won’t happen. We may continue to pretend to get along with Pakistan for years more, so that they will allow our logistics for Afghanistan, a pointless and expensive war. And, of course, to avoid admitting what utter, poisonous damn fools our leaders are.

And I wonder if this goes deeper yet. A real fair chance that Musharraf was in on it. And might they have been involved with Bin Laden earlier?

Involved in 9-11 itself? You have to wonder. With friends like these….

Greg

And what has changed?

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Dishwashers harbour ‘killer bugs’

Jerry

Dishwashers have nasty fungi in them:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8589765/Dishwashers-harbour-killer-bugs.html

“The scientists studied 189 dishwashers in 101 different homes around the world. They found 62 per cent of dishwashers contained fungi on the rubber band in the door. More than half of these included the black yeasts Exophiala dermatitidis and E. phaeomuriformis which are known to be dangerous to human health. Writing in the journal Fungal Biology, Dr Polona Zalar of the University of Ljubljana, said that "the potential hazard they represent should not be overlooked." . . . "One thing that is not in the report is that we tested the dishes after they had been cleaned in these dishwashers and they were full of this black yeast, so too the cutlery that you put in your mouth. We just don’t know how serious this could be."

“Black yeasts are particularly dangerous for people with cystic fibrosis, as they are able to attack the lungs. They have also been found to occasionally cause fatal infections in healthy humans. Both Exophiala species displayed remarkable tolerance to heat, high salt concentrations, aggressive detergents and to both acid and alkaline water. This explains why the fungi survived even in high temperatures between 60 º to 80 º C, and despite the use of detergents and salt in the dishwasher.”

So, now what?

Ed

This was some time ago. I have seen little about it since.

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A recent correspondent mentioned that we have not heard from Petronius in a long time. I realized that was true. Here is an older unpublished note from him. Email to his last address fails. I hope to hear from him again. He had much to say.

Dear Jerry,

Correspondent "J" pointed to an article about DARPA ponying up half a megabuck for a Paper Study on how to get humans to another star.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/17/pentagon-dreams-stark-trek-style-interstellar-travel/ <http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/17/pentagon-dreams-stark-trek-style-interstellar-travel/>

Aside from my idle thought of buying a paperback copy of Heinlein’s CHILDREN OF THE SKY and submitting that as my proposal, I found it interesting that the funding is intended to "kick start" a Hundred-Year Plan for Star Travel.

Did these DARPA guys read TIME FOR THE STARS (Heinlein again), with its Long Range Foundation doing exactly that? I suppose, now that Bell Labs is just another TelComm R and D center tasked with finding better ways to distribute amateur porn, DARPA is the closest thing we’ve got to a LONG RANGE FOUNDATION.

However, there is a Fundamental Misapprehension in both the Call For Proposals as well as in the Hundred-Year-Plan concept.

It’s evident here (from the article)-

The grant would be "seed money" to help someone start thinking about the idea and then get it off the ground in the private sector, David Neyland, director of DARPA’s tactical technology office, said in a Thursday teleconference.

This is not about going to a nearby planet, like Mars. And it is not about using robotic probes, which does not interest the Defense Department, Neyland said. (Emphasis Affed)

Cart, Meet Horse.

End of quote-

Earth is a planetary civilization. Planetary civilization’s do not do Interstellar Travel. Civilization’s don’t have sustainable aspirations greater than their current resources can sustain.

Case in point- When Europe was an Intracontinental civilization, still concerned with getting the European woods cut down, swamps drained, barbarians tamed and wolves doggifed, until some very basic infrastructure for a Continental Civilization was in place, no one put much effort into traveling to other continents. It was fun to talk about, "Traveler’s Tales" were a popular form of what was, for them, Science Fction. Nothing serious.

Once Europe became a continental civilization, suddenly it was Steam Engine Time for seeing what was on the other side of the Ocean Sea.

So the Hundred Year Plan for Interstellar Go Buggies ought, -ought-, OUGHT include, indeed should primarily be about, all the myriad ways of getting humans to Luna, Mars, the asteroids, comets, space stations and every other conceivable manner of building the Basic Infrastructure of an Interplanetary Civilization.

Because an -INTER-Planetary Civilization will see a Need For Interstellar Travel. No one had to pay Da Gama, Columbus and Frbisher to dream of crossing the sea. This will hold true for their spiritual heirs in an interplantary socety, contemplating interstellar voyages.

As it is, the DARPA plan is as if Caesar Augustus one day called in Agrippa and ordered him to get his shipwrights together and "Build me a Clipper Ship!"

Petronius

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I often stack up mail that ought to be published then neglect it. Tonight it’s late after pleasant dinner with Vernor Vinge and other friends, and on a whim I have randomly entered a mail archive. Astonishing how much good stuff I find in mail I wasn’t able to use immediately. I’ll keep mining it.

Homework

Dr. Pournelle,

The NYT article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/education/16homework.html is a fine example of what drives me crazy about the media. It takes an important subject and turns it into an intellectual food fight.

It starts out with a simple question, which presumably is supposed to illustrate the intractable nature of the homework issue, “How many times do you have to add seven plus two?” In the real world, the answer is simple and obvious : Until you don’t have to think about it.

The statement quoted by Joel Salomon, “There is simply no proof that most homework as we know it improves school performance.” appears carefully crafted, and is not necessarily as radical as it seems. It does not claim outright that homework does not help children learn. One might reasonably assume that the homework process could be improved. But sober research into making time spent on homework more effective would be boring. It is much more sensational to argue about abolishing homework entirely, and a much easier story to write if you just quote proponents from both sides and throw in a few anecdotes. Then you don’t have to waste time with the really dull research into boring studies with quantifiable results. Things get so complicated with populations and methodologies and statistical significance. Food fight!

This is one of several articles I have read recently about school being too demanding on kids. I suppose it may be true, but if so, shouldn’t today’s kids be better educated than previous generations? Is anyone really making that case?

Steve Chu

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Subject: Admitting to the Obvious about Burning Food

A couple of government studies finally admit to the obvious. Burning food causes food prices to rise.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37848/?ref=rss

Dwayne Phillips

And we have known it for years but still we mandate ethanol from corn to be auto fuel. Burn, baby, burn.

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The Iron Law Supplement

Jerry,

I am not yet sure how this fits in with the Iron Law, but it fits together in a large pattern that I am sorting through. Procedures vs.

Expertise Law seem to be part of this.

The Procedures vs. Expertise Law — which I plan to update to another man’s last name followed by mine once I perfect it — basically states that in a bureaucracy we have two types of people: experts (Es) and proceedurists (Ps). This statement does not conflict with the Iron Law and may correlate with it. Just a personal would be more individualist or collectivist and high-context or low-context — on two different dichotomies related to measuring cultural tendencies — one could be a type 1 or type 2 Iron Law person and also an E or a P.

Experts have the knowledge, but expertise demands responsibility. So, the expert knows the deal but he must micromanage and that takes time and puts the expert at risk. If the expert makes a bad decision, the expert can recieve negative sanction. Ps do not have expert knowledge; they follow procedures. You can see this in McDonalds — if you can get them to let you into the kitchen — and I recommend trying it. I read about it and couldn’t believe it and I had to see it for myself. It’s all lights and buzzers and, basically, procedure.

The forms must be filled our properly, but why? Because most bureaucrats are not experts, and they are little more than fast food workers making the lights and buzzers stop. If they get five black squares and the standard is five black squares, they push the green button. Else, they push the red button.

I have a suspicion the type that serves the organization is the P.

Why? The P is useless because anyone can do the Ps job. We need the P, but we do not need the individual who serves as a P. Really, when we get decent scanning technology we won’t need people to see that forms are filled out correctly and the Iron Law may need revision because we won’t have those people in the bureaucracy anymore and I think that will be great. Automation may save us from bureaucratic bloat, frustration, etc. But, what are we going to do with these people?

Now, I want to end this email on a positive, and related note. I originally emailed you to send this, but I went off on a tangent in my head and realized that it applied to the Iron Law and might interest you or the readership. So here was the original point, to put a smile on some faces:

NO SALESPERSON

MAY LEAVE THE FLOOR

OR GO TO THE DOOR

WITHOUT THE AUTHORIZATION

OF A SUPERIOR.

THE MGT.

"He came back several times in the next few weeks, and the sign remained. It was as he suspected: in a rigid hierarchy, nobody questions orders that seem to come from above, and those at the very top are so isolated from the actual work situation that they never see what is going on below. It was the chains of communication, not the means of production, that determined a social process.. Nothing signed "THE MGT." would ever be challenged; the Midget could always pass himself off as the Management." –Robert Anton Wilson, The Illumiantus! Trilogy

[Readers could use Jerry’s little Amazon icon and click that to order so that Jerry can get some extra walking around money.]

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I set this aside for another day over a year ago. Things flow here so. There is a classic SF story about how a chap in an over organized society finds that the orders come from ‘suggestions’ from the only sane man left in the city. A janitor…

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And you could subscribe right now. It won’t take long.  http://www.jerrypournelle.com/paying.html

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Boston. Musings on rock on rock; a walk in Boston; a poem, and Hitting the Earth with large objects; and a new scam

View 762 Thursday, February 14, 2013

It’s cold in Boston, and I do not really recommend the Westin Hotel. The staff is nice enough, but there are no vending machines on the floors – I guess it’s considered too snooty for that – and the only source of anything is the gift shop. There is no coffee shop. There is a Starbucks at which I had a Blueberry Scone while sitting at a rather rickety table outside the Starbucks sort of in the hotel lobby, sort of in a corridor to some other area of the hotel. The scone was made about the time the table was last cleaned, which was probably after the last inaugural but I can’t be sure. The nearest drug store is said to be a 20 minute walk, which I will dare in a few minutes. At least I won’t get lost. The weather is perfect if cold, sunny day, walks cleared, residual snow on the ground but in well behaved piles off out of the way. Boston seems very efficient in digging out of snowstorms, even one of record intensity as happened last weekend.

The convention starts this evening and I have scouted the route to the area where things begin, so I will have no problems finding that. The gift shop was out of the Wall Street Journal, but a very nice porter found me a copy somewhere backstage in the hotel desk area – which was curiously devoid of people when I went looking to ask for a Journal. The depression has made service workers very helpful and nice but their employers are short handed. We’re all just trying to get along.

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Regarding last night’s musing,

Flint without steel firestarting

Jerry,

No doubt by the time of Lewis and Clark the North American tribes had access to steel but prior to that they could have used Iron Pyrite or Marcasite. Here is a link to a video of folks starting a fire with “rock on rock”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_DX_BL57jc

Mike Plaster

Which I suspect I should have known about. I have a friend who does knapping – making tools with flint – but I have never seen fire made with rock on rock before. Of course fool’s gold is iron, and it seems reasonable that striking it with flint would produce a spark.

As to the most reasonable explanation of the fires which shaped the ecology of pre-Columbian North America, the author of 1491 explains that in the Mississippi Valley lightning, which causes most forest fires, is accompanied by rain, which generally puts out the fires. East of the Mississippi much of the land was forested, because forests tend to take over from grassland if left to themselves. It is the thesis of the book that much of that area including the large forests of chestnut and hickory nut trees was tended, so that the way of life there was a combination of agricultural and hunter/gatherer. An interesting thesis. The book’s contention is that the Mississippi Valley was thickly inhabited, but Europeans had only a slight glimpse of that, because plagues, particularly smallpox, ran ahead of the explorers and conquistadors and missionaries. I remember in grade school Tennessee history that De Soto noted large abandoned villages along his route. This book (1491) contends that they had only recently been abandoned, and the cause was plague, spread as much by hogs who roamed ahead of their European importers as by anything else.

Also on fire before iron

fire starting

Jerry,

The Inuit of Northern Canada had iron about 1000 years ago during the Medieval Warming Period when there was a brisk trade of walrus ivory for iron with the Norse in Western Greenland across the Baffin Strait. It’s plausible that some of that iron was traded to the south. Also the Fire Piston is an ancient means of fire starting which predates ‘flint and steel’.

Lightning is a common source of forest fires, and it’s quite likely that fire was taken from that natural source and ‘preserved’ as glowing coals when traveling.

cheers,

JG

I am aware of some Inuit legends, and on reflection recall the trade in Viking times – steel weapons and tools would have been obvious trade items. The Inuit were dairy farmers until the cold came back and they learned to live entirely out of the sea. I don’t know of any records of trade with the Huron and other lake/river/forest tribes, but after 1300 the ice came back with a vengeance so it’s likely most steel tools left over by 1450 would be well used up.

All of which reminds me that there were American Indians at the court of Charlemagne (crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800 A.D.). They appeared in a large open boat paddled not rowed apparently on the Rhine and lived their lives out in Europe, as something between courtier/guests and hostages. And of course there are Irish legends of trade with the West before the Iceland settlements.

Anyway that clears up the fire starters. Whether there was as much intentional burning of the plains (which of course never reforested because of the fires) and the Northeast as 1491 contends I don’t know. The evidence is pretty good, though.

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The cleaning people are here for the room so I will brave my way to find the CVS.

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14:30

I left the hotel at 12:20 intending to find a drug store.  I asked a porter in the lobby if there was one within walking distance.  He said it depended on what I meant by walking distance.  Since he was a fairly young man very likely of East African descent his idea of walking distance is likely to be different from mine, but then I tend to forget that I am damned near 80 and the last time I walked anywhere in downtown Boston was probably during the Carter Administration.  (I’ve been to Harvard and MIT many times since then, but not walking in downtown Boston.) He said it would be about a 20 minute walk. That seemed like a pleasant stroll. Assuming his pace wasn’t all that different from mine. I forget that I am damned near 80.

Anyway I set out from the Westin at 1220 on Summer Street heading with the Sun to my left. The first thing I noticed was a pair of large sea gulls. Considerably larger than the San Diego gulls I am more familiar with. I don’t know if this was an unusual pair, but since I saw very few and part of my walk was not far from the harbor, and I didn’t see more gulls, it may be that these are unusual not only in size but in that they didn’t fly south for the winter, or they stay around the hotel and are  big enough to drive the others off.  Anyway they were the only gulls I saw, and they were still in the hotel area when I got back.

Walking North on Summer. The area just around the Westin and Convention Center is modernized, as is the bridge just north of there over the roads and traffic below at sea level – there’s another city down there including three story buildings – but once across that bridge things are not so nice. The sidewalks are shoveled clean but they are not well maintained. The next distract is office buildings not well maintained and many for lease, and absolutely nothing for walk in trade. Eventually you come to a cross water bridge, where I expected to see more gulls, but didn’t. I was on the sea side of the street so didn’t look east. By  now I had walked 20 minutes or so and still no sign of any commercial buildings whatever, although the office buildings were in better repair. Not the sidewalks, though, which tended to be not only cracked but actually had a steep slant toward the street, probably something I would not have noticed at one time but enough to make me glad of my cane.

When I first started I noticed that all the street signs had “Do not walk” red hands displayed at all times even when the light was green. I also noticed that no pedestrians paid the slightest attention to those signs, either the pedestrian sign nor the vehicle traffic lights. They just plunged across the intersections looking neither to the right nor to the left, determinedly walking straight on through. After a while I took to keeping up with them, on the theory that I hadn’t heard of too many multiple automobile massacres in Boston, so the pedestrians must know what they are doing, and I recall in my dim past being told by MIT friends that you must not make eye contact with automobile drivers for to do so was to yield the right of way.  So I walked with clusters of people looking neither to the right nor to the left determinedly walking across the streets, and all went well.  A curious custom, but it appears to work in Boston.

At 25 minutes I stopped a couple of pedestrians and asked if they knew of a drug store nearby.  They seemed puzzled. I mentioned I had been told of a CVS, and one said, O yes, of course, about ten minutes walk in the direction you are going. That proved to be an accurate estimate. I plunged on and reached the “New Station” which the pleasant young porter had said would be a sign that I was near my destination.  It proved to be, and inside the CVS I discovered to my dismay enormous – enormous to an Angeleno lke me anyway – lines at the checkout stations. Lots of checkout stations each with a long line. Of course it is Valentines Day.

I got my stuff (over the counter pills I had neglected to pack) and found the shortest line led to an automatic checkout station. Those have not reached Studio City except for one at the Ralph’s and that one has a pleasant assistant manager whose sole job it appears is to assist customers through the so called self help system. When it came my turn I had no problem until it suddenly beeped at me and said one of my items was age restricted and an attendant would be there presently, don’t go anywhere. I offered her a look at my driver’s license, she laughed and did something or another to the machine, and the robot let me give it a credit card.

One of the items I bought was a Mocca Frappuccino, which the hotel gift shop does not sell, probably because there is a Starbucks in the hotel lobby and they have a treaty or something. Anyway I got a bottled Frappuccino and in doing it noticed that unlike California drug stores, this one offered neither wine nor beer, and glancing around the very large CVS drug store I saw there was no liquor department, so I presume that Mass. has more restrictions on dispensing booze than California.  I don’t know whom the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are protecting from the Demon Rum,  but from my viewing of Rizzoli and Isles the alcohol consumption doesn’t seem to vary among New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. I remember state owned liquor stores in the State of Washington, so perhaps Mass. keeps a monopoly on profits from the stuff.  Since I gave up drinking more than a decade ago I don’t think about such matters much, but I wonder if California should try something of the sort, both to cut down on alcoholism and reduce the state deficit.  Typical democratic thinking, of course. I don’t buy liquor. Let’s tax the hell out of it. Don’t tax me—

I got out of the CVS at exactly 0130.

Walking back I did look to the left over the harbor bridge and saw a large sailing ship. No signs identified it but it looked to be about the right size to be the USS Constitution. In my younger days I would have walked over there, but it was just far enough away that I did not. I already regret that. My iPhone map, which I didn’t think to consult while I was walking, thus proving that I really am of an older generation even though Niven and I can be said to have invented the pocket computer with maps and recording abilities and general connection to the world data banks as well as by videophone. We had something like the iPhone (larger, purse size not shirt pocket size) in Mote in God’s Eye. Book holds up well on technology to this day.

Anyway I did not walk over to the Constitution and I got back to the Westin a bit after 1400, making it a half hour walk to the nearest drug store from the Westin.  It goes quicker if you have discovered that no one pays any attention to traffic signals, and pedestrians must never make eye contact with motor vehicle drivers. The trip was shorter too because I was remembering a poem I learned in high school.

 

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Aye tear her tattered ensign down
long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;–
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;–
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!’

Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1830

It was proposed that the Constitution be scrapped as obsolete. Holmes’ poem swept the nation and saved her.

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From Today’s Wall St Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324196204578297823983416036.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

A Warning From the Asteroid Hunters

The likelihood in this century of an asteroid impact with 700 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima A-bomb: 30%.

In the game of cosmic roulette that is our solar system, we just got lucky. Earth will get a very close shave on Friday, Feb. 15, when Asteroid 2012 DA14 passes just 17,000 miles from our planet. That is less than the distance from New York to Sydney and back, or the distance the Earth travels around the sun in 14 minutes. We are dodging a very large bullet.

The people of Earth also are getting a reminder that even in our modern society, our future is affected by the motion of astronomical bodies. The ancients were correct in their belief that the heavens affect life on Earth—just not in the way they imagined. Sometimes those heavenly bodies actually run into Earth. That is why we must make it our mission to find asteroids before they find us.

 

And lots more. Jolly good article…

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I am off to a Boskone event in a minute but we have this from Peter Glaskowsky:

I got a robocall today from what looks like a new scam targeting AT&T customers.

My call directed me to att820 dot com, but apparently they have a number of related domain names.

AT&T put up a page about the scam a couple of days ago.

http://forums.att.com/t5/Data-Messaging-Features-Internet/Phone-and-text-messaging-rewards-scam/td-p/3426893

The funny part is that they called my Sprint phone.

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